Week Twelve: Senate Committee To Vote On Marijuana Bill; House To Vote On Budget

Week Twelve: Senate Committee To Vote On Marijuana Bill; House To Vote On Budget

With just two weeks left in the 2014 session, members of the Maryland General Assembly return to Annapolis tonight.

The House and Senate are both scheduled to go into session at 8 p.m.

The House of Delegates this week is expected to consider its version of a state budget.

St. Mary's County Delegate John Bohanan, who chairs the Education and Economic Development Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee says the House is considering a number of changes to the budget bill approved by the Senate two weeks ago.

However, like the Senate version of the budget, the House will used $200-million in money meant to shore up the state's pension fund to help balance the budget.

The Senate took the action to help close a $238-million shortfall in tax revenue projected for this year and next year.

Bohanan told WBAL News this is the best option to balancing the budget.

The legislature has set next Monday as the deadline to approving a new state budget. A conference committee of delegates and senators will work out a compromise, and lawmakers probably won't approve a final budget until some time next week.

Senate Committee Vote Expected On Medical Marijuana

Tomorrow, members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee are expected to consider a bill to expand medical marijuana in Maryland.

The committee is considering a bill that passed the House of Delegates that would allow individual doctors with special certification to prescribe marijuana. The marijuana would come from one of ten licensed growers.

A number of committee members would like to see that number increased.

Last week, Dr. Paul Davies, who heads the Maryland Medical Marijuana Commission, told WBAL News that he was worried critically ill patients would have limited access to marijuana under the House bill.

Supporters of decriminalization of marijuana are considering adding language from that Senate passed bill to the medical marijuana bill.

Two weeks ago, the Senate passed the bill that would reduce the penalties for possessing less than 10 grams of marijuana from 90-days in jail to a $100 fine. The bill remains in the House Judiciary Committee, which let a similar bill die last year without a vote.

The chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, Democrat Brian Frosh says combining the two bills could be risky, noting the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Joe Vallario might not let that bill get a committee vote. Vallario opposes decriminalization of marijuana.

Vallario's committee has scheduled a hearing on the Senate decriminalization bill for one week from tomorrow.

Minimum Wage Bill Unresolved

The governor's proposal to raise the minimum wage remains in the Senate, where the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee wants to tie an increase in the minimum wage to a an increase in state funding for salaries for aides to the disabled.

Senator Mac Middleton has been meeting with aides to Governor O'Malley to address the issue.

Middleton says his committee may vote on a minimum wage bill this week.

The House has already approved a bill to raise the minimum wage to $10.10- an hour by January, 2017